Carbon nanotubes can be composed of a number of coaxial cylinders of graphite sheets, and have recently attracted a great deal of attention for use in different applications, such as field emitters, chemical sensors, and so on. The carbon nanotubes can be prepared by Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD), Arc Discharge, or Laser Ablation. When a carbon nanotube array is grown on a growth substrate by CVD method, the carbon nanotube array adheres to the growth substrate and it is difficult to separate the carbon nanotube array from the growth substrate. Furthermore, the carbon nanotube array can be peeled from the growth substrate by a knife or a tweezers. However, it is difficult to obtain an integrated carbon nanotube array by peeling the carbon nanotube array from the growth substrate using the knife or the tweezer, because the bonding force between the carbon nanotubes and the growth substrate is strong.
What is needed, therefore, is to provide a method for separating a carbon nanotube array from a growth substrate that can overcome the above-described shortcomings.
Therefore, there is room for improvement in the art.